"When you take your next trip to Iraq, I would be glad to get together with you."

Bremer loses his cool at a college lecture.

So it has been well over a month since the Bremer lecture. My, how time flies.

So it turns out my post before-hand was pretty much right on the money. If you'd like to read about how the event went, check out the article in The Bowdoin Orient. The Brunswick Times Record wrote an article about the event, which is no longer online. However, you can find the article here, at this site I found by googling my name.

I won't go into great lengths here on how the lecture went, but I will say this: Bremer is a much bigger jerk than I ever thought he would be.

There, I said it. It's completely true. I went into the lecture with an open mind, I asked him a reasonable question, and his response was obnoxious. Not to mention the fact that it didn't answer my question!

If you didn't read the articles, here's the recap:

I asked a question about U.S. corporations' role in Iraq, bringing up the fact that he established a number of new laws specifically to make Iraq a great place to do business. I also brought up the fact that he declared Iraq "open for business" soon after arriving.

The point of my question was basically asking him why U.S. corporations had so much control in Iraq, and why it wouldn't be better to involve Iraqis more in the reconstruction of their own country in order to make their economy sustainable.

In his response, Bremer actually had the gall to say, "When you take your next trip to Iraq, I would be glad to get together with you."

Well obviously I haven't been to Iraq, you idiot! That's why the school wasted over $25,000 on your joke of a speech!

I could go on and on about this, but the point is this: Bremer basically delivered a White House press conference at Bowdoin's expense. In addition to being snippy with me, he said "read my book" when a student asked him what he would have done differently.

Talk about a missed opportunity for Bremer. He failed to convert many in the audience by failing to be very persuasive or answer questions very directly.